About Us

What is nanoHUB.org?

nanoHUB.org is the premier place for computational nanotechnology research, education, and collaboration. Our site hosts a rapidly growing collection of Simulation Programs for nanoscale phenomena that run in the cloud and are accessible through a web browser. In addition to simulation devices, nanoHUB provides Online Presentations, Courses, Learning Modules, Podcasts, Animations, Teaching Materials, and more. These resources help users learn about our simulation programs and about nanotechnology in general. Our site offers researchers a venue to explore, collaborate, and publish content, as well. Much of these collaborative efforts occur via Workspaces and User groups.

Authors of content published on nanoHUB.org represent a broad and growing cross-section of the nanotechnology community. Their work impacts industry, education, and governmental organizations around the world, as shown by the animated user location map below. The majority of nanoHUB users are affiliated with academic institutions, while other individuals are part of government and industry groups. nanoHUB makes public detailed usage analysis for the site with a degree of transparency uncommon among other sites.

nanoHUB content has been cited over 1,100 times in the scientific literature. These papers collectively have an h-index of 57, and the majority of them are by authors not affiliated with the Network for Computational Nanotechnology, the project that produces nanoHUB. Through automated assessment of user behavior, we have identified over 1100 clusters at 185 institutions using nanoHUB tools in the classroom. nanoHUB annual uptime regularly exceeds 99 percent.

About the Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN)

NCN was established in 2002 and is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). nanoHUB.org--a cyber-community for theory, modeling, and simulation--advances that initiative and now serves over 300,000 researchers, educators, students, and professionals annually. NCN seeks to: 1) engage an ever-growing and more diverse cyber-community that shares novel, high-quality research and educational resources to spark new modes of discovery, innovation, learning, and engagement, 2) accelerate the transformation of nanoscience to nanotechnology through a tight linkage of simulation to experiment, 3) develop open-source software, and 4) inspire and educate the next workforce generation.

NCN guides and funds improvements to the open-source, Purdue University's HUBzero® platform that powers nanoHUB.org. The NCN education and outreach team conducts workshops to train a broad spectrum of nanoHUB users ranging from lecturers at MSIs, HHEs, and HBCUs, to undergraduate and graduate software developers. NCN's impact is assessed by an extensive, multi-faceted effort including automatic data gathering using nanoHUB, surveys and interviews, and by external assessment teams.

What is nanoHUB's Mission and Vision?

Our mission is to support the NNI by creating and operating an ever-evolving cyber-platform for sharing simulation and education resources. Pioneering research, education, outreach, and support for nanotechnology community formation and growth drives nanoHUB.org. Our vision to grow a diverse community who uses an increasingly rich collection of nanotechnology research and educational resources via nanoHUB.org encourages potential users to employ nanoHUB.org for innovation and research. We envision our members producing innovative theory, modeling, and simulation in ways that fulfill NCN's goals to generate "new modes of discovery, innovation, learning, and enagement."

Primary Funding Support

NCN operates nanoHUB.org through funding provided by NSF. We received a five-year grant (EEC-0228390) for 2002-2007. This grant was renewed for another five years under a cooperative agreement (EEC-0634750). An associated National Middleware Initiative (NMI) NSF grant (OCI-0438246) for 2004-2007, along with a subsequent Software Development for Cyberinfrastructure (SDCI) NSF grant (OCI-0721680) for 2007-2010, has provided middleware developed and used on nanoHUB.org. Enhancements to simulation results delivery were developed under the NSF grant (OCI-0944665) "Instant-On Simulation Delivery: Helping TeraGrid Achieve Its Wide and Open Strategic Goals." An associated NSF grant (OCI-0749140) entitled "Accelerating Nano-scale Transistor Innovation though Petascale Simulation" enabled us to develop OMEN for peta-scale computing as well as for immediate nanoHUB applications. In 2012, NCN was awarded a new grant (EEC-1227020) from NSF for 2012-2017 to continue to operate and develop the cyber platform nanoHUB.

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nanoHUB.org, a resource for nanoscience and nanotechnology, is supported by the National Science Foundation and other funding agencies. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.